There's something cinematic about platforms - no, not the software version.
It's where family issues get resolved or break up forever - at least in the movies.
The place where strangers arrive in a town and have a profound impact - where their life changes or the town changes.
Scriptwriters need a staging point for life's inflection points - and railway platforms are more accessible than airports. Airports are distant and there can't be last minute resolutions - at least the way they can be staged on platforms.
Bus stands are ordinary. There isn't much potential for drama in drab surroundings.
But railway stations have parallel lines that converge or diverge - and act as final chapters.
The train leaving the station, the guard waving the green flag and blowing the whistle and the closing doors have a finality that can be mined for dramatic staging.
The heroine having escaped the clutches of her dominant family runs in slow motion towards the outstretched hands of the hero.
Will he disappear into the horizon? Or will they unite at the last possible minute? We've all seen movies where both happened.
In fact, it has become a cliché - the movie station ending and trying to come up with variations is now almost impossible.
But that doesn't matter ultimately.
The point is that every story needs a resolution. And platforms offer that neutral ground where conflicts can be either resolved or end in bitterness.
Platforms are cinema's punctuation point. Life has to come to a full stop or go on.
Insurers are cutting ransomware cover
it's getting chaotic out there.
Even with strong cyber security systems in place, insurance companies have had to pay out hefty sums to affected companies.
Ransomware, apparently, is the new money making favorite of the underworld.
There's nothing to be transported, and every single successful strike brings in large rewards, directly in cryptocurrency. Making it harder to trace and thwart.
No wonder insurers are having to cut their losses and put up safeguards from payouts instead of protection.
They are paying only half the cover they used to and some insurance companies are actively discouraging cyber expansion.
That is bad news for IT companies which looked at software eating the world. But ransomware is taking a seat at the table and biting off a lot more than any company can cough up.
No one predicted a networking future that would have to contend with such disasters. Effectively, an affected company's data needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and there is no guarantee that they will not face a reckoning again.
The ease with which data is locked up and systems rendered useless is prompting a rethink.
Solutions will be found but since the operation is highly profitable, new attack methods will be tried out as well.
How will insurance companies respond to the new dynamics of cyber crime?
The risks are rising at a fast clip now.
Companies will have to bear the brunt of the attacks. A solution provider who can prevent breaches could be a guaranteed billion dollar opportunity - as long as they can deliver.
Quantum computing may have to be fast tracked.
Explore things you don't understand
We create our own barriers and walls.
I've heard people proudly say " I know nothing about..." as if that was an achievement. It takes so little to find out more.
Maybe you won't be able to understand things in depth right away but it does not mean you don't make the effort.
Babies start out with no understanding of how to move, talk or communicate. But they are observing and making the effort all the time.
The gibberish that comes out of their mouths transforms into words and then sentences. The 'rolling over' in bed is among the earliest things that kids do, not sitting up or even attempting to walk.
They ask an unending series of questions, irritating adults who find that they have to explain the same thing over and over again.
That's the learning process. And somewhere in school, we get used to rote learning. And studying to get the highest marks in class.
As if that is the objective and not the thrill of understanding.
We get used to others setting the limits of what we should and should not know. Like invisible barriers, we never go beyond them.
Take cryptocurrency. There's a series of lectures from Princeton University available online. It's 13 hours of a deep dive into what Bitcoin and blockchain are all about.
But don't limit yourself to what is fashionable right now. We live in a time when there are no limits to learning.
We have to go back to the time when we learned more in those first few years because of one simple behavior. Curiosity.
The rest will take care of itself.
Every week, I'll plant a few ideas in your mind on branding, behavior and markets. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address.
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